600SCi in a 25 Outlaw
 

After having test run the 600 last Friday (and the grin is still there!) I will now get to use it properly at the weekend. Driving up to the Dutch border, to meet up with about 70 other powerboats and their crews. There should be around ten or so 25/26 Outlaws there.

I´ll still be breaking the motor in, but with a 32" prop, a 4500 rpm limit is no hardship!

I feel sorry for the 525. It looked after me so well, but will be seeing some more action soon!

I must have missed that, didn't realize you were repowering. Looks great.

AWESOME

That has to be a real rocket ship!

What speed with that 32 pitch ??? and 3 blade or 4 :cool-smiley-011:

Have you removed the S-525hp stickers from the side or are you going to leave them on so it will be a "sleeper"?:p

I was going to type something earlier but I made a mess on the keyboard.

Looks very nice. Can't wait to see some final numbers after you get it dialed in.

Yeah Baby! That is a killer motor!
I'm dying to see the results. That 32 has to be way too much prop though.... right? You just put that on for more speed at the lower rpm for break-in?

Come to think of it.... Who needs break-in anyway! Baja and Merc didn't think mine needed it! LOL.

ps- Looks like you have mufflers... Did you have those before?

wild card is the man!!!! a 600 in a 25....just awsome.

Sounds like the 32 is way too much prop ,but why run 6000 rpm when you can go easy on the motor . We just dropped 600 in a 24 Nova and a 28 4 blade is doin 76 mph at 5000 at 1 lb of boost ... Lets hear some speed #s

I had a labbed 30" Bravo on first and it seemed way too short. I haven´t really opened her up yet, but the revs just climbed sooo quick and the boat shot forward like a Mastercraft, I decided to go up two clicks, and it still feels a whole lot more lively than my 525 was (but then again it is damned well supposed to!!!).
It is definitely not wildely overpropped, with a 32", but remember that with my high x dimension, I am seeing more slip than with the stock settup.

The S-HP525 is the registration number, and it will be "upgraded" too!

The motor feels and sounds smoother (and maybe a little less racey) around the docks. The shifting seems to be really gentle (although I am using the same drive as before). Maybe the torque controlling electronics are doing a little more on the blower motors.
The attitude changes when the throttle is pushed forward. JEEEEEZ was that a moment to remember, first time out!:evilb::evilb:
4 Blade props at the moment, although Mercury Racing sent a series of Maximus´s to test. I´ll wait until I´ve done the first oil change before trying those.

The seastrainer that we put in is a 12" item. Big enough, I think!

we checked over the 525, and it is like new, inside and out. All eight cylinders show 11 bar compression, within a tenth of each other. The plugs look like new. 157 hours and two seasons.

Mercury Racing make good motors.

Nice job WILD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what #s on the GPS so far ???thnx

Yeah, when is the next day for testing? ...this weekend I hope?

Mabey I need to read a little more. I missed this engine swap idea.
I'm supportive of everything but the "break in". Drive it out of the box like you are gonna drive it every time you are in it.

Super Steve,
See you at the Belgium poker run!?

Regards
John

John, when is the Belgian run?

@All - the weekend was a great success. The motor has has now got 10 hours logged on it, and ran like a ....well just like the 525 did, with a whole lot more power.

I decided to go down a click, and run a new labbed 31" Bravo, to be a easier on the motor, and started the weekend watching the gauges continuously. Got to know the pattern. Cold start oil pressure is a remarkable 70 psi, dropping to 50 psi at idle when warm, and 65 psi at speed. After a run, the oil temp and water temp climb a couple of degrees. Otherwise everything looks the same as with the little guy. Fuel pressure always at a steady 62 psi (instead of the 525´s 40 psi)however hard the motor pulled.

On Friday afternoon, a run back to the marina next to Alex´s Pantera saw us slotting into the old routine and as many as six freight ships with a 1/4 mile of each other had both boats sharing generous amounts airtime as we battled for the honours!

I was watching the water pressure and the temp gauge for any signs of cooling issues. I had been warned that the blower motors (and particularly their Smartcraft Guardian system) are more sensitive to both fuel and water pressures, as this is how blower motors often meet their end. The motor seemed to really enjoy the action.

On Saturday, we did a fast run along the Rhein to a small lake where there is an enclosed race circuit, also shared by the local waterskiers. I took a couple of friends out and did ten laps, pretty much as fast as I could drive the boat. At the end of the straights, I had 77 mph on the GPS (where I was seeing about 71 mph last year). Trimming down to brake into the corner, and pulling tight around the bouy, planting the throttle and trimming out as we turn out (don´t try this with a stepped hull!!!). The acceleration had us screaming like wild men!

The 1" spaced shorty had just as much grip as the standard drive, and would not blow out even when turning tight!
(Note - I shall have to try running without the spacer, again).

With more hours and seat time I was running harder in the chop out on the Rhein. My passenger started to call off the GPS number as a stretch of consistent chop aired the boat out nice, and before I had to back off the throttle as the next freight ship wake approached, we had a new bestmark..........

84.8 mph @5200rpm

The 525 motor is now officially up for sale.............

Poker run Belgium / the Netherlands
 

Steve,
We are traying to work out an Poker run in the Netherlands first.. Together whit Wampie (sunsation) I let you know.. or look at www.snelleboten.nl

Regards
John

This shot was taken just before we wound up to 84 mph.........

Today I´m going to do a run with the 32" prop.

Wild Card did you have to change any rigging from the 525 to 600??

Great shot.
Here it is just a little brighter- In case you need new avatar!

Stephen,

Is that thing a boat or an AIRPLANE?

You are the man!:D

SWEET RIDE.

Be safe out there and keep us posted.

Dock

No, the 525 was a late model (2006) with digital 14 pin harness, so it was plug and play.

Even the bolt in offshore motor mounts were so accurate that the propshaft alignment was spot on, first time!

Only a seastrainer was neccessary to fulfill the T.EA.M. installation specs.

Dropped it off Monday evening and picked it up Friday afternoon. The Mercury applications manager for Europe came by and double checked everything.

Over here, we get a two year garantee from the importer, but having seen how well my 525 ran, I doubt I shall ever need it!

Thanks Mike for the modded pic! Now the single 600 Outlaw club starts to take shape. The other 26 (600/ITS/Sportmaster) should be ready soon!

Dock, thanks. I even check that the stars and the moon are all in the right place before I let myself get up to speed.
Going from 67 mph (in a 26 foot boat) up to an 80 mph was already a big step, but every mph after that is factor ten in terms of reaction time, and boat behaviour. No space of bad decisions, but that is what makes it so exciting.

so how did the 32 work? so you put in a 1'' spacer to much slip?84.8 is great I am sure you will be at 86 or 87.my boat hits the shop in 2weeks for extra bulkheads dyno the new set up which could put me over 700hp, also got a call on a hp 1000 that needs to be put together at a good price. but 1st the glass work has to be done.

Nice :cool-smiley-011:

big pimpin! man that boat looks great!

The 30" saw us all over the revlimiter, with the throttle only half open, running at 82.4 mph.

The strange thing is that even with the 32" I was seeing maximum speed at half throttle. Maybe it is the torque of the blower motor.

Pushing the lever to full throttle doesn´t gain any more speed. The throttle cable is correctly adjusted - that I checked first. The motor seems to run really good, and makes light work of my 25.

Whereas the 525 needs to use all of its 5350 rpm to get its best speed, the 600 does it all using its 840 Nm of torque, and delivers best at 5100-5200 rpm.

can you try a 34 B1 or a 32 5 blade? to see if you pick up speed , so at what rpm are you wide open 84gps?

I was speaking to one of the guys at Mercury Racing today (at the P1 race on Malta) and they confirmed my observation that the 600 likes to run "loaded up" so as to draw on the torque. He said that I should "throw more blade at it". That will sacrifice acceleration and holeshot, but will translate into a more speed.

The 525 was very straight forward. rpm made speed, and the fine line between too much blade and dancing on the revlimiter was easy to identify.

I can`t wait to get back out on the water (next weekend).

Arcticfriends (Smity) here on OSO has a 272 Baja which is pretty much the same boat and he is running in the neighborhood of 1000hp. I think his best is 98mph, but he is trying hard to break the century mark.

John,Stephen and me have compared set-ups before,I have no desire to break 100 mph anymore after running 98 last year,boat was about 3 mph past the very top of its safe zone. I'm keeping the next size smaller pulley on the shelf:sport009:,Smitty

I have great respect for anyone seeing that sort of speed in a 27 foot sportboat hull. I can see a big difference in the few extra miles I gained with the 600. It is a balancing act keeping everything straight and smooth. It varies according to conditions, though. Some runs feel like the boat could handle more power, and sometimes it is hard to put all the power down........
But that`s just where I want the boat to be - a demon to be mastered......

Ho wow , i missed your re-powered ...great set up you have now !!! be safe please , this thing could fly in certain condition :eek:

The 525 was doing a fine job, but I was really hot to run a blower motor, and the 600 is just plug and play!

Did some prop testing yesterday. I gave Maximus another chance. Until now the labbed 26" that I have proved to be useless on the 525 settup.

The 600 really came to life when given some blade to bite on. The boat comes up on plane really quick and clean (quicker than with the 4 blades I´ve tried) even though I was going easy on the throttle (the five blade and a blower team up to give the drive hell). Once on plane there is so little mid range slip, lower revs at higher cruise speeds. The response and character of the motor is more aggresive than with the 4 blade and alot faster than the 525. The blower starts to whistle instead of wining (does that make sense to anybody?) and sounds like it is really delivering the torque. It felt great. Bow lift was good, as the torque seems to carry the bow.

The response when throttling through some freightship wakes was a very good, and sort of makes up for the slightly snappy way the prop affect the hull on reentering. The 31" and 32" Bravos were showing some torque reaction on the hull at topspeed(I had to drop a little left tab sometimes) but the Maximus lets the boat run dead flat.

The 15 1/4" x 26" was running into the revlimiter at 81 mph. The 28" was taking me up to 83 mph at 5300 on smoother water than I like. I think the motor still needs more pitch to get the revs down a little further, combined with a some lively chop, I see another good number coming up soon..........

stephen how is the boat running whats the new props turning for speed, have hit 87 or getting there. art

525 water pressure
 

Steven ,I have a 28 savage by active thunder and was wondering what the water pressure is suppose to be at on a525max .My gauge only goes up to 35psi and at 3500rpms its already there .Thanxhttp://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/images/smilies/cool.gif

I was running a maximum of 42 psi @ WOT. Around 30 psi @ 3500, if I remember right. That was with a standard XR lower, with dual water pickup. I closed up the upper four holes on the side pickups because of the high x dimension.
The 525 should run 20- 43 psi @ WOT.

The 600/Imco lower shows less water pressure (about 35 psi @ WOT, 26 psi @ 3500) but stays within the parameters that Mercury Racing specifies (30 -50 psi @ WOT), and the Smartcraft hasn´t complained once, even when flying between waves.

Ron at Imco told me that fitting their lower sometimes results in the water pressure running too high for some instalations.

My mechanical water pressure gauge isn´t hooked up, but I get a reading over the sensor, through the Smartcraft monitor.

Stephen thanks for the info,I was a little nervous with that number at those rpms .If that what merc recomendsthen I should be in the right area,Istill dont know what it really is at wotcause the gauge is buried,next time out I will check it with the scan tool.Thank you Phil

Stephen how is the boat running and did you change the drive height or are you at 4'' under stock = 3'' box and 2 '' shortie plus 1'' spacer . is that what you are keeping? and how are speeds.

Any Think New??

I´m still running the 1" spacer settup. That combined with a 28" Maximus feels good. I haven´t been able to top the 84.8 mph that I ran early in the season (with a 4 blade), but I´m very happy with how the boat runs.
35 hours in, the 600 really is just as easy-going as the 525 was. No issues. I towed a buddy in last weekend. 8 mph and about 1600 -1800 rpm, loaded up for about an hour. No temp issues, and the motor hasn´t missed a beat.
A 350 mile round trip spread over five days, running at all speeds, including idling in no wake zones for hours, has strengthened my passion for the motor even further. This was the longest period that my girlfriend and I have stayed on the boat for, and we both really enjoyed it.
Art, lets see some pictures of that monster motor you´ve got there?
Stephen